


Memory

by LunarLady



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, F/F, Fluff, Guns, Past Character Death, Robots, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-01 09:57:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18798046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunarLady/pseuds/LunarLady
Summary: After the death of Handsome Jack Gaige and Axton go on a mission to search the computer systems of the now abandoned Hyperion base for secrets and schematics to help with a new Crimson Raider undertaking. Gaige manages to find something fairly intriguing in the lines of code.





	1. Story Mission: Angel Code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having finally had a moment for everything to catch up with her, Gaige is feeling things weighing heavily on her conscience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Suplex for being my editor and one of my biggest fans and cheerleader. Check them out at https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suplex/pseuds/Suplex

The mission was simple investigate the computer systems in the Hyperion hubs that were now abandoned and and look for general information about hidden bases, small military forces that might be hiding and planning an attack, and possible technologies they could steal and utilize in the future. It was kind of a cake walk of a mission and Gaige figured she could do it solo, but she didn’t mind Axton’s company. He was actually pretty good in a pinch, and the way he talked about his dumb turret was always bound to make her laugh. She still wasn’t positive whether or not he was romantically involved with it.

They were nearing the end of their mission with only a few more spots to hit up and she had found nothing important other than some interoffice emails that would make for some salacious gossip if anyone up at the Helios base knew. 

"It kinda sucks that we trashed this place so hard." Gaige kicked the remains of a half melted Loader bot out of their pathway up the mountain. "Like, I don't normally mind carnage or anything, but this place was kinda pretty?" The mountain on which they took down Jack's 'bunker' that he built to 'protect' his daughter had been one of the few places on Pandora that could be called pretty. The greenery and the white marble made it look like some sort of strange peaceful oasis in the hostile wilderness.

"If I wasn't looking at a trash strewn shithole at this point I wouldn't know what to do with myself." Axton laughed as he walked up to a set of doors partially jammed open by a particularly shiny pistol in Hyperion yellow. "Can't believe we missed that." Axton let out a long low whistle and just as Gaige felt it coming she casually said "Dibs." just a millisecond before him.

Slightly crestfallen, he shrugged and wedged his hands into the door crack and began to pry them apart with a grunt. 

When the opening was big enough for her to slip through, she squeezed past him into the dark computer room (snagging the now free pistol on her way), lit only by a screensaver of flying toasters. "You know, you wouldn't have had to try so hard to pry it open if you smiled at it. I know it would work on me." She winked at him before she crouched down and, using the flashlight built into her cyborg arm, lit the underside of the computer console. Taking a screwdriver in her other hand, she pried open a panel where there was a port to plug in her tool kit. She was already in the files and turning on the lights in the facility before Axton managed to squeeze through himself. She skimmed through some of the files but it looked like this was just a security checkpoint and not actually hooked up to anything important. At least now she could turn on the elevators and autodoors. The whole actual security system with the turrets and loader spawner was completely destroyed, though, because of their battle here. No hope of simply reprogramming that to make this into a secondary base.

"Looks like we're gonna have to get straight at the source." Gaige brought a map up on the screen and pointed to what looked like a smaller room sitting on top of a large round chamber. "Here. The base's reserve power is being channeled to what I'm pretty sure is the super computer that Angel used when her daddy not so dearest made her hack the planet."

"You think there'll be anything good on there?" the soldier asked, leaning in to take a closer look.

"Honestly? I don't know. I think Lilith just wanted me to get you out of sanctuary because you're kinda distractingly hot to everyone who is supposed to be working." Gaige nudged him playfully as she stood straight and started heading towards the elevator. The password wouldn't have changed. Jack didn't have time to change it, or really any reason now that what it had been protecting was gone. Gaige kinda found it hard to think about it all. Angel was the same age as her, but had spent most of her life locked away in a cage, abused and tortured by her father while Gaige’s own father had been nothing but supportive and kind and made sure to always give her every opportunity to do what made her happy. Heck, he had even distracted police while she escaped to Pandora. It was hard for her to ever imagine him doing any of the things Jack did to Angel.

Her thoughts were only broken when Axton cleared his throat and said, "Oh yeah? W-who told you I was distractingly hot?" and then in a lower voice he asked "Was it Zer0?"

She rolled her eyes. "More like everyone when you're not around. You and Maya are totally looked at like Artemis and Apollo or something."

Axton rubbed his chin as if lost in thought, musing on the merits of being divinely attractive. 

Gaige pulled out the pocket watch that they had used the last time they were here to sound like Jack. She knew she needed it, but hated the idea of sounding like that slimebag again. They stepped onto the scanner together. Angel's phaseshift override was still in effect. Jack never had time to cancel it. When the computer asked for the voice verification, her mouth went dry, her throat tightened up and she could barely get out the word "I" and when asked by the computer a second time Axton eyed her a little from the side. She cleared her throat and said more clearly "I love you." in Jack's clear deep voice.

"Are you ok?" Axton sounded a little concerned.

"I'm fine. It's just sorta hitting me, you know? I guess I haven't really thought about it..." The last time they were here, they had had to kill an innocent girl to save all of Pandora… all of the galaxy, probably. Jack would never have stopped at just Pandora. Not when there were so many planets and people to exploit and bend to his will. It had to be done, and Angel had been begging for them to kill her.

That is what Gaige told herself, but it was little comfort. She just went over and over the situation in her head again and again, trying to figure out if they could have done something, anything different, to possibly save the person in the wasteland that deserved it the most.

She hugged herself, her flesh hand gripping her her robotic arm as tightly as she could, The odd sensation of knowing she was gripping her own arm and being unable to actually feel it had been strangely comforting to her. She had talked to Zed about it once, and he said he figured it was a grounding mechanism - but to take that with a grain of salt, considering he wasn't a real doctor. He then asked her to find him some laser guns to attach to bullymongs so they could have hot meals.

Right now, though, it reminded her of this one time a girl in her class had told her to put her finger next to hers and to use her other hand to feel the two touching fingers. The sensation of feeling both of the fingers there with one hand but only one of them being your own was rather trippy feeling. But then the girl said something that would always stick with her: "That's what it feels like to be dead." 

At this point, she had almost died so many times that she was well familiar with the actual sensation of being near death, and while for the most part it was lots of pain.... close to the end, just as your vision is going black and it sounds like your friends are shouting at you from the surface as you sink below water and they're telling you to keep shooting while they desperately stick you with healing syringes. Just for a moment, barely even a second, you feel both there and not, both part of this world and maybe the next if there is a next. 

That girl was right.

The elevator took them deeper and deeper into the heart of the mountain. She smiled wanly to Axton, who had a frown on his face. “I’m not sure the brooding silent type is your thing, bro. That’s more Zer0.”

“What, that nerd? I swear on my turret that under that helmet, they’re just some dork trying to be as anime as possible.” He stood straighter as if trying to reach Zer0’s statuesque height before slouching again and laughing.

“Well, I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you.” Gaige winked at her friend.

“Wait, you’ve seen them? I call bullshit.” He paused “... Are they human?”

Gaige brushed the tip of her nose with her finger and asked, “Does it matter?” In truth she had never seen Zer0 and had no idea what they were, but she definitely wasn’t gonna tell Axton that. She liked to tease him. They were both fairly flirtatious people and melded pretty well in that way, and while she might have wanted to have a taste, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to be more than just friends with him. Gaige had to admit to herself she was just a bit horny on main.

The elevator stopped finally, letting them off into the small round room where Angel had used her phaseshift to bring them to her main chamber below.

Lilith had collected Angel and Roland’s bodies to bury after they had killed Jack. But Gaige was still happy that they wouldn’t even be able to access it without siren powers juiced up on eridium or one hell of an alien-powered space laser.

She directed Axton to a small panel next to what appeared to be an otherwise seamless wall. She pried the square of metal off with her own metal fingers and took a look inside. She clipped two of the wires with a pair of snips and touched the exposed ends together, which made the wall lift up to reveal not the computer room she had been expecting, but a living space with a computer off to the side in an alcove. There was a table with two chairs, a couch with a blanket and pillow, and what appeared to be some sort of a stasis pod with a large apparatus the perfect size for a head to rest in. 

It was fairly bare bones, but there were pictures on the walls. A few scenery shots of some of the prettier areas on Pandora like Highwind, a field of sunflowers and….. Fyrestone? One of a woman in her late twenties with black hair and cornflower blue eyes.

“Do you think that’s Angel’s mother?” Gaige asked out loud.

“Sure does look like Angel. Only without the, y’know…” Axton tapped the side of his head where Angel’s interface modules for the computer had been.

Gaige herself had been thinking of getting one and an echo eye implant, but honestly eye surgery skeeved her out a bit. As far as she could tell, Angel’s had been used to have her brain directly interface with the computer, and it had had something to do with her siren powers.

The photograph of the woman, on the other hand, was free of augmentations or the tell-tale siren tattoos. She smiled warmly at the camera. After a long time of looking at those familiar eyes she had seen many times, Gaige realized that the face Angel had projected so many times into their heads as they were on their journey had been this one... the face of her mother. Maybe she saw it as what she would have looked like, had she not been born into the life she was.

She turned to look at Axton, who was now poking around the pod where he pulled out a stuffed rabbit, not dissimilar to the ones that Tina liked so much. She walked up to him and peered over the edge, into the pod. The strange apparatus looked to be some sort of brain function scanner, and there was another blanket in there. Gaige figured that this was supposed to be her bed. “Hey, let me see the rabbit.” She held out her hand for it and Axton obliged. It was soft and worn and the paws appeared to have been rubbed so many times that the fur had come off. Gaige felt a twinge of guilt at the idea of leaving it behind without someone to love it anymore. She put it in her bag, choosing to bring it home.

She figured they had intruded on the room enough; it felt a little wrong to be poking around a dead girl’s bedroom. She headed to the computer in the alcove. It was time to get to work.

She sat down in the chair and cracked her neck, quickly starting to scan through the files. She immediately noticed that the machine wasn’t exactly running optimally; the speed was considerably crippled, which was a bit strange considering this was the computer Angel had been using to pull her wild stunts. That's when Gaige noticed that a program running in the background was taking up nearly 2.5 petabytes of RAM. If Gaige were to go through all of the files at this speed, it would take years. She prepared to close the program when a window popped open and the words “Please don’t turn that off, it's the only thing keeping me conscious.” typed out onto the screen.

Gaige stared at the screen, unsure what was going on let alone what to do next. “Um… Axton, can you take a look at something for me?”

“What, huh?” Axton had been occupying himself at the table, cleaning one of his guns which had pretty much become his go-to when Gaige was searching files. He was a bit surprised that Gaige sounded so concerned, since she usually only called him over to look at the dumb shit people had saved to their work PC’s, like weird NSFW selfies with crazy kink stuff going on. Apparently some guy on Helios named Hugo was into some crazy stuff and had his phone hacked, and he was now a bit of an office meme.

Instead of the normal bemused to downright unable to hold back laughter tone she usually possessed at these moments, though, she sounded confused and a bit concerned. Axton set down the gun barrel he was working on and walked up behind her just as the screen typed out “Hello, Axton. Hello, Gaige… I’m glad you came.”

“Who is this?” Gaige said out loud to the computer, only feeling a little silly.

“I’m Angel.”


	2. Story Mission: Hear Me Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel explains her side of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Suplex for being my editor and one of my biggest fans and cheerleader. Check them out at https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suplex/pseuds/Suplex

Gaige looked down at the device dubiously. “Nice try, but Angel is kinda dead and buried. So, who are you really? Where are you messaging us from?” She put her hand on the pistol on her hip. The shock would be enough to toast it, but she’d rather get to the bottom of this.

“How are you even seeing or hearing us?” Axton asked, his voice only a little confused. His training and combat experience helped him keep a level head in most any situation. At least outwardly. He had once told Gaige that you try to keep the “Ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck!” screams in your head and out of your mouth.

“They’re obviously hooked into the cameras in the security system and have been watching a listening to us this whole time.” She plopped down in the chair unceremoniously and  sighed.

“You are right. Angel died and I can see you through the security system. I’m not lying though. I promise you I am Angel… well, sort of.”

“What do you mean by ‘sort of’?” Gaige’s hand lowered from her gun. She didn’t really believe what was on the screen, but she was feeling a little self conscious having considered shooting a computer that was by all accounts immobile and unable to access an already shot security system.

“Well, since Lilith was the one to return for her body, I suspect that you succeeded in taking care of my father. Honestly, thank you so much for that.”

“You’re welcome but that doesn’t answer my question and if you don’t get to that soon, I’m gonna go ahead and reboot the whole system.”

“I understand, and I’m really not trying to stall. I’m just glad he’s finally gone. You see, I-” The computer paused for a second as if thinking before starting again. “You see, we-” Another pause before the text started appearing again. “I’m having a bit of a hard time with this. I will go with ‘I’ for the moment, I think.

“I was alone. I lived in this small room for years with nobody’s company but my father’s and a computer through which I could watch the world but not interact. I was studied for my siren abilities, and my father taught how to code when he was around. He was so nice, so cajoling that back then I used to believe in his charm, even when he was angry and screaming. I knew that wasn’t really him. That was what happened when he was angry or frustrated. It was my fault he was upset. I hadn’t tried hard enough to use my powers or I had been too loud and asked too many questions. I would start crying and he would soften a little but say, ‘See what you made me do, cupcake?’ I had no one in my life other than him. I idolized him, I feared him.

“I spent my time hacking the Hyperion database, and for the most part I’m sure my father knew what I was doing and didn’t care as long as I wasn’t bothering him. I learned things, things about the people he worked with, that I’m pretty sure he ended up using to blackmail them. I learned things about what they were researching and developing and what scientists were really experimenting on.

“One thing in particular gave me an idea though. There was this one scientist, Nakayama, who was extremely overzealous about my father. He had developed a technology for scanning a person’s brain and uploading their memories and personality into a machine. He had used it to make a copy of my father’s personality, and though it was rudimentary at first, it had been advancing quite a bit. I had most of the technology I already needed to recreate the experiment right here in my room. I only needed to make a few adjustments to the brain scan in the stasis pod I called a bed - they had been using it to scan my brain waves in my sleep every night. You see, I wanted to scan my brain so I could have someone, anyone other than my dad to talk to. That’s how I was first made about 4 years ago.”

“I gotta say, this is a pretty wild story.” Gaige chewed on her thumbnail thoughtfully for a second before saying, “You’re telling us that you’re a sentient imprinting of Angel’s brain from when she was 15 years old?”

“Not quite.” The computer paused and the two companions weren’t sure she would elaborate when it finally began to type again. “I’m not entirely sure what happened, myself. I had been pretty much shut off for over a year as Jack began the process of charging the key and had implanted the computer interface modules directly into her… my head. I mean, the unconsciousness of being shut off had never bothered me. I just wasn’t there. When I woke up though, I hadn’t thought anything had happened at first, at least, not until I had noticed what date it was. I started remembering things, but differently. It's a little difficult to explain, but it was like memories were coming back to me like I had experienced them. Ever since my mind was first uploaded, everything in my memory became files that I accessed, but now, it's more like synapses firing and connecting thoughts and feelings. I’m thinking more like a human than I have in years. I’m also remembering things from after. Things that I never experienced.”

She paused again for a second, like she was collecting her thoughts. “I never used to have trouble differentiating between her and I. She was living and growing and always changing while I stayed somewhat the same. Now, though, it’s like that was who I always was.”

“How the heck did that happen?” Axton put his hands on the back of the computer chair and was leaning in closer to the computer screen. Gaige herself was already running through various different scenarios in her head. Not much she could think of was all that plausible, though. A.I.s these days were getting more and more intelligent. More lifelike. It was arguable they were even sentient. Gaige herself was on board with this line of thought  Deathtrap was still very rudimentary but she believed he was 100% her sweet baby boi. She just wasn’t sure A.I. on the level that was being suggested was even possible.

“I remember talking to you. I knew I was already dead, my body was at the point where without constant Eridium I would die. My father had already killed me by starting this. I asked you to come down and ‘rescue’ me from my father and get the vault key from him. I knew what had to happen but… I was scared. Death sounded like a relief from the pain and it was the only way to stop him. A small part of me in the back of my head that was screaming that I wanted to live activated something in me. My powers, they manipulate technology on some level. I saw codes and numbers and could cut through them like a hot knife. I could bend any program to my will as long as I was given an in.”

“I was so powerful at that moment, just before I was disconnected, that I think in a way of self preservation my powers gave me a major update. I think… I uploaded my consciousness. My program turned on and I’ve been awake ever since. Piecing things together from what little I could see. The base has been completely shut off from the echonet. I think the transmitters must have been broken in the fight. I honestly was terrified I would be alone and cut off forever.”

“Whoa.” Gaige leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms behind her head. “I mean, I’ve definitely heard weirder stories that were true.”

“So you think she’s being honest?” Axton scratched his chin as he looked down at her. It was a real question. The lack of incredulity and the fact he was referring to them as ‘she’ made that fairly clear to Gaige.

She nodded at her friend. “Something about it just...sounds right to me.”  She looked up, tilting her head back to look at him a little more. “It doesn’t sound like one of Jack’s shitshow tricks. It doesn’t paint him in a positive light.”

“Yeah, that's what I was thinking.” He ran a gloved hand through his short blonde hair and looked almost a little nervous. “I’m not positive how Lilith is gonna react to this new development, though. She’s been going a little too toasty too easily lately. She put a bounty out on that Athena chick yesterday, even though I thought they were friends. I mean, they even took down Atlas together. She wants her alive at least.”

Gaige shrugged nonchalantly. “If she has a problem with it, I’ll vouch for her, but only if I can take a look through some of the coding to see if there are any problems with the story. I think… I think I’ll be staying here for a while. I have an idea, though I’ll need a stable echonet link and maybe a li’l help from Dr. T..”


	3. Story Mission: Breaking Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige coerces Angel to come out of her shell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Suplex for being my editor and one of my biggest fans and cheerleader. Check them out at https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suplex/pseuds/Suplex

Things changed quickly in that small, bare room Angel had called home for so many years. After Gaige had reviewed the code that they figured made up who Angel was, the most she could determine was that it was the most complicated AI she had ever laid eyes on, and she wasn’t even sure she could make much heads or tails of it. That's not what she told Lilith, though. She had pulled the Crimson Raiders’ new commander up on the ECHOnet and told her straight away that she was completely positive the A.I. was Angel, and that she wanted to consult with Tannis on their possible actions going forward.

Tannis was a bit more certain than Gaige on the subject of Angel’s authenticity, which seemed to come as a huge relief to the girl. Angel had strained to listen to their conversation out of curiosity, but had been unable to hear what they whispered in their hushed tones. She figured that was what she got for trying to snoop.

Gaige hooked her up to the ECHOnet and Angel was finally able to actually see the world again, even if she was unable to go out into it. She got to see what was happening to Pandora now that the controlling hand of Handsome Jack was no longer holding it in a death grip. There was still chaos and bloodshed. Psychos and bandits still roamed the land, but at least it was free of the controlling corporate hegemony. It was easier for people to protect themselves without being forced into backbreaking labor that left them sick and infirm from diseases easily avoidable with proper safety precautions and medical care.

It was decided that Gaige would be moving into the control core to keep her company and to “work on a solution to your predicament,” as Tannis had put it - or to “Keep an eye on her,” according to Lilith.

As a result of this, Gaige had blown through Angel’s room like a storm fueled by anarchy and caffeine. It was transformed into a toolshed and workstation. On the worktable, where she sat tinkering on what mostly just looked like a pile of random parts to Angel, there was also the addition of a holopad on the corner where Angel could project her own image and actually speak to her new roommate. It was one of the first things Gaige had set up. She had said she didn’t want to “stop my work on my magnum opus just to read text on a screen. Talking to you face to face is much better anyway.”

Angel had a hard time reading Gaige’s expression, but she had never had much one on one experience talking to other people anyway. Jack hardly counted, considering he hardly ever showed his true emotions. She wasn’t even sure she pulled the right expressions herself. Her face had grown more and more stoic over the years, no longer wanting her father to read what she might be thinking in a given situation. It was one of the only ways she had been able to enact her plan against him. 

The room was filled with loud rock music played over the radio. Apparently the Crimson Raiders had taken control of Hunter Hellquist’s broadcasting tower and were using it for their very own pirate radio station, where tiny Tina relished in making playlists full of songs with the most foul language she had ever heard in her entire life. At first, listening to it had made Angel nervous and worried that something bad would happen. She was filled with a sense of foreboding, and it took her awhile to figure out that it was the fear of her father's disapproval. Understanding that calmed her anxiety, but there was a side effect to it. She was now mad.

“He made me afraid of music…” She said this outloud, but softly. She honestly didn’t think Gaige would hear, but the mechanic looked up from her pile of circuitry to look at the projected hologram.

“What was that?” She pulled her goggles off of her eyes and they pushed her bangs back on her head messily and Angel found it an endearing look.

“He made me afraid to listen to music he didn’t approve of.” She repeated herself a little louder and clarifying more. “He made me afraid of a lot of things he wouldn’t approve of.”

Gaige’s right eyebrow rose in a look of bemusement. “Yeah, like swearing?”

“Yes, I was scared to swear even if he wasn’t around. I knew he would find out somehow and I would be in trouble. Ugh, he was such an…” Angel paused for a moment. Her voice had been getting louder as she talked about it and the last word she said came out in a softer tone, “asshole.”

The mechanic was now sitting back in her chair and was smiling ear to ear “Well, you know what I think, Angel?”

“No? What do you think?”

“I think that rat bastard shit for brains is dead as a goddamned doornail, so he can go fuck himself in hell like the crappy skagg licking asshole he is, and if he has a problem with that then he can sit on this and spin.” which is when Gaige proceeded to make a very rude hand gesture.

Angel was sure that if she could flush at this moment, she would. She laughed instead. “Wow, that is truly impressive.”

“Nah, thats small fry shit. I knew this girl at my school who knew how to cuss with the filthiest, most vulgar bandits in 35 different languages. 33 were human and 2 in what she swore up and down were alien dialects.” She leaned forward looking at the hologram conspiratorially. “Angel. I have a serious question for you.”

Her eyes widened at the close proximity of her friend and the suspicious look on her face. “What is it?”

“Have you ever said ‘fuck’?”

She blinked for a second and thought that she had never seen an individual look so much like a fox. She just shook her head. “No. I’m almost positive I never have.”

The corners of her mouth twitched before she sat back again, crossing her arms behind her head, which Angel noticed she did often, as she rocked back and forth in the chair. “Say ‘fuck’, Angel.”

“No, I couldn’t.” Angel protested, but she found herself grinning back at her. “It would be silly.”

“Angel, I’m the closest thing you have to a therapist right now, and as your doctor I am prescribing you 50 CC’s of the word ‘fuck,’ stat.”

She let out a laugh. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Then tell me to ‘shut the fuck up’.”

“Ok then.” Clearly embarrassed by the action, Angel quietly mumbled out the word.

“What was that? Something about a ‘duck’?” Gaige put a hand to her ear as if trying to catch the cound.

Louder this time but still barely audible, “ I said ‘fuck’ .”

“Huh? You know my name’s not Chuck.”

A little aggravated by the teasing, Angel finally shouted “FUCK!”

“Wow, such language. I am offended. I can’t believe I am being so rudely treated. Where do I file a complaint?” She was looking around like she just couldn’t believe what was happening and putting on a big show for Angel.

“You can file it in the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ box.”

"Nice one. You'll be a pro in no time."

The sound of a voice clearing from the door to the room got both of their attention. Mordecai was leaning casually in the doorway holding a small parcel. “Got your delivery, kid.”

“Sweet! I can’t believe that they wouldn’t accept a burned out bunker hole in the ground as a valid delivery address.” Gaige hopped up and gave the hunter a quick hug, which he returned with a hesitant pat on the back, before going back to her worktable to get something.

“Hello, Mordecai.” The small hologram of Angel waved at him a little shyly, feeling more than a little awkward seeing him for the first time since she had psychically projected into his mind. It was strange just thinking about it. 

“Hey, so you’re like, actually alive… sort of, I guess.” He rocked back on his heels but his eyes were hidden behind dark lensed goggles. He scratched the back of his head underneath his bandana. “This is weird right? It feels weird..”

“It’s pretty weird explaining my existence, honestly,” she confessed to him. 

“So like, they said your brain copying thing was something that a Hyperion scientist was experimenting with?” His head cocked to the side, almost birdlike when paired with his goggles and pointy features.

“Yes, Professor Nakayama was using it to create an AI clone of my father.”

“He was what?” he groaned, “Don’t tell me there are A.I.’s of that asshole infecting computers somewhere like a virus.”

“As far as I know, Nakayama died before he ever implemented any plans to bring my father back, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“Yeah, well, if he does pop back up, someone else is dealing with him.”

Gaige had found what she was looking for, a pen knife that she used to cut open the tape on her package. She pulled aside the packaging with the eagerness of a child on Mercenary Day and squealed in delight. “Oh they’re freakin’ perfect!”

“What did you get anyway?” Angel asked curiously. Her view was blocked by the box’s flaps.

“Oh, just some spare parts,” the redhead said casually, maybe a little too casually, before putting the box on a shelf, out of view of the computer’s optic sensors. “What are you doing delivering this anyway, Mordecai? I’d have thought they would send some grunt.”

“Lil wants to keep the situation here on a need to know basis. No telling what a corporate spy might do with the info Angel has on Hyperion, let alone the vaults.” He shrugged. “So until we can move her to a more secure location, it's gonna be the VIP treatment.”

“Well, since you’re here anyway, I’ve got something I’ve been meaning to give you.” She went over to the bag that haphazardly held all of her clothes and personal belongings that partially spilled out onto the couch. She pulled out a glass tube that was usually used to hold samples from the Hyperion laboratories. This one was empty but for a small collection of long feathers. Angel recognized them immediately for Bloodwing's.

"You saved them for me?" Mordecai looked almost taken aback and stood where he was even as Gaige held them out to him.

"Well, actually, Krieg was the one who picked them up? I just put them in the jar and held onto them. " Gaige smiled and looked a little embarrassed, "I woulda given them to you sooner, but you didn't really seem in a great place for it?"

Mordecai finally stepped forward and took it from her, "Well… thanks." He was looking down at the jar, turning it around and looking at the feathers. "I better get going. I'll see you later." 

As he turned to leave, Gaige shouted after him, "Bring Talon next time of I'll kick your ass!"

He waved without looking back and Angel was sure he was rolling his eyes under his goggles, "Sure, sure. But you better not spoil him, Lilith is bad enough with that already." 

She plopped down in her chair with a cocked half-smile on her face and was already back to tinkering when Angel let out a little giggle.

"What do you think you're laughing at?"

"That was really sweet of you. You're more than just teammates, you care about them."

"And what is so funny about that? "

"Nothing. It was just funny seeing two of the biggest badasses on Pandora acting like awkward dorks trying to express emotion. "

Gaige’s face flushed a little from embarrassment and she looked down at her project again.

“It’s like you guys are a family. Its sweet.”

She looked up from her circuit board to look at Angel, the corner of her mouth pulling up on one side, “What do you mean, ‘you guys’? You’re part of the group too, now. You’re kinda stuck with us. For better or for worse, Ange.”


End file.
